Reuters
Indian Wells, March 15: Andy Murray squandered a 4-1 lead in the third set before losing a tie-breaker to World No. 53 Federico Delbonis to bow out of the BNP Paribas Open here Monday. Murray lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-7(3-7) in the third round encounter.
World No. 2 Murray let his commanding lead evaporate on a warm, windy day here. Delbonis took advantage of a series of Murray errors to run off the last five points of the tie-break to end the 166 minute struggle in Stadium 1.
“Thanks to everybody here for such an amazing match. It was a very intense match, very passionate, I think,” the Argentine said.
Delbonis, who reached the quarterfinals this year in Rio and Sao Paulo, varied his strategy against Murray and took advantage of some weakness in the Scot’s serve. Murray failed to register an ace and won less than 50 per cent of his second serve points.
Delbonis will meet Frenchman Gael Monfils in the fourth round after the 13th seed dispatched Spain’s Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1, 6-3.
In another day match, 12th seed Milos Raonic of Canada advanced to the fourth round 6-3, 3-0 when Australian Bernard Tomic retired in the second set.
Tomic had complained about an injured wrist before the match against the hard-serving Raonic, who will meet Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round. The sixth seed beat Croatian Borna Coric 6-1, 7-6(7-3).
Eighth seed Richard Gasquet of France advanced past Ukraine’s Alexandr Dolgopolov 2-6, 6-2, 6-1. His fourth-round opponent will be Croatian Marin Cilic, who defeated Argentine Leonardo Mayer 6-4, 6-3. Also advancing to the fourth round was fourth seed Swiss Stan Wawrinka. He had it easy against Russian Andrey Kuznetsov and won 6-4, 7-6(7-5).
There were upsets galore in the women’s section also as seventh seed Swiss Belinda Bencic and former World No. 1 Ana Ivanovic were sent packing. Slovakia’s Magdalena Rybarikova stunned Bencic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 while Czech Karolina Pliskova dumped Serbian Ivanovic 6-2, 6-0.
After an uneven start at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden 18th seed Pliskova’s game clicked into gear in spectacular fashion, as she reeled off 10 consecutive games from the start to have Ivanovic shaking her head in wonder. This was Pliskova’s fourth consecutive win over the Serbian in as many meetings.
Next up for Pliskova will be Britain’s Johanna Konta, who advanced a 6-4, 6-1 winner over Czech Denisa Allertova.
Russian Daria Kasatkina defeated Puerto Rican Monica Puig 6-4, 3-6, 7-6(7-2) to set up a meeting with Swiss Timea Bacsinszky who overcame Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
